The present invention relates to an improvement of a high speed production unit for performing machining operations which has been disclosed in Italian patent application TO91U000132 of the Applicant, as well as in the corresponding European patent application EP-0 517 168.
The above identified references disclose a high speed production unit for performing machining operations which is being presently produced and marketed by the Applicant and comprises:
a bed, PA1 a first slide, slidably mounted along a first horizontal axis on said bed, PA1 a second slide, slidably mounted on said first slide along a second horizontal axis orthogonal to said first horizontal axis, said second slide having a lower sliding plane which is inclined at an angle lower than 90.degree. with respect to the horizontal plane, and PA1 a third slide slidably mounted along a third vertical axis on said second slide and carrying a tool head, PA1 a tool magazine for the tool head having a support body provided with means for supporting a plurality of tools each provided with means for quick coupling to said tool head; said support body being static with respect to said bed; said head being adapted to pick up and store tools in said static magazine in order to perform the various operations of a machining cycle on a piece to be machined.
Due to the above described inclined arrangement of the sliding plane of the second slide, a lower stress of the cooperating slide-ways is obtained along with the resulting possibility of a more rapid displacement of the movable masses, with advantage for the production speed.
During machining of a piece, the tool head provides by itself to store and pick up tools in said static magazine, so that it can perform all the machining operations programmed on a given piece. However, when a tool in the static magazine reaches the end of its life because of wear or rupture, it must be replaced, which can be done by stopping the machine, with a resulting loss in time.
The details relating to the structure of the known production unit which has been mentioned above and the advantages thereof are not disclosed herein, since they are described in the above identified Italian application and in the parallel European patent application of the same Applicant, whose contents is incorporated herein by reference.